Parents Put Space Heater In 2-Yr-Old’s Room And Shut The Door, It’s Hard To Fathom What Happens Next

A Missouri toddler died after his parents put a space heater next to his crib, shut the door, and didn’t check on him for 38 hours.

Braydon Barne’s lifeless body was found in his crib on Dec. 20. The cause of death was hyperthermia, or in layman’s terms, excessive, uncontrolled body temperature. The space heater didn’t have an automatic shut-off, so the child was forced to endure the heat for more than a day and a half until he died.

He undoubtedly suffered during that time and eventually found breathing difficult, according to medical experts.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reports that there were 15 hyperthermia cases involving children 5 years and younger. All of those were because the children were left in a car or had climbed into a parked vehicle during hot weather.

Hyperthermia is defined as “an abnormally high body temperature caused by a failure of the heat-regulating mechanisms of the body to deal with the heat coming from the environment,” according to the National Institutes of Health.